World

Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-091 Sunday 20 May 2001

Reading: PSALM 62 – FINDING REST IN A STRESSFUL WORLD

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

The world whirls by and we are caught up in the madness. Ask God to calm you down so that you can hear his voice today.

We see it on the faces of everyone around us, we see it when we look in the mirror — everyone is uptight. And everything has to be done on the run. We hustle and bustle with a thousand and one thoughts jostling in our minds and begin to accept the lie that the only way to have a meaningful life is to rush about looking worried.

Tension is everywhere and can explode into violence at any time but surely war could never happen in a world peopled with individuals at peace with themselves.

So how do we achieve that? The author of this psalm appears to have found the secret. First, he affirms that he finds rest not by psychologically conditioning himself to relax, but by realising that his rest lies outside of himself in God alone (v 1).

Why so? He’s helpless. He describes himself as a wall ready to collapse, a swaying fence, threatened further by enemies masquerading as friends whose delight is to see his downfall (vs 3,4). His precarious situation could not possibly allow him to find peace within his shaking self, even if he wanted to.

The author’s past experience has taught him that in God alone does his rest, hope, salvation and honour come (vs 5-7). God is all these, the ‘Shalom’ we all need: that quietness and confidence of spirit in the midst of pressures and conflicts, an inner sense of well-being untouched by outside anxieties and cares because we know God is with us.

To rest in God alone is to trust him fully. And this is something we should share with others (v 8) for three reasons: because God is strong, because God is love and because God is just (v 12).

‘Lord God, enfold me in your strong embrace so that my rest in you may bring healing and justice to others. Amen.’

– Evelyn Miranda-Feliciano

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001